Is there any actor in Hollywood who is more disconnected in his self-image from what he's actually good at than Nic Cage? He so desperately wants to be an action hero, yet he's only slightly less goofy than Eugene Levy.

The closest I can think of is Kevin Costner. He loves to make big, sweeping thematic epics like Waterworld, but he's so much better at small, intimate, intense stories like No Way Out. But even he's a distant second to the madness that is Nic Cage.

czetie:Is there any actor in Hollywood who is more disconnected in his self-image from what he's actually good at than Nic Cage? He so desperately wants to be an action hero, yet he's only slightly less goofy than Eugene Levy.

The closest I can think of is Kevin Costner. He loves to make big, sweeping thematic epics like Waterworld, but he's so much better at small, intimate, intense stories like No Way Out. But even he's a distant second to the madness that is Nic Cage.

Good call. Costner *can* make good stuff, as it was with Open Range (in which he took more of a supporting role and let Robert Duvall carry most of the action).

Costner's made missteps, but he's still capable of solid work, as evidenced by Hatfields & McCoys.

Cage, on the other hand, is tantamount to a walking punchline these days.

I remember when Cage was first announced, the collective reaction of the American public was basically like someone dropping a racial slur on-stage at the BET Awards: all eyes on Burton and dead silence, with only angry or puzzled looks that seem to scream, "are you out of your farking mind?". You could practically hear the record scratch and everything. It was all anyone could talk about for a couple of weeks (I remember SNL even got some mileage out of it) because it was so bizarre. Hell, even the local news was quipping, "that makes about as much sense as Nicholas Cage playing Superman." It makes me chuckle when I see people now remark that they can't believe this was considered a good idea. Trust me, it was never considered a good idea by anyone but Tim Burton, Jon Peters, Nicholas Cage and whoever was signing the $20 million pay-or-play checks at Warner Brothers back then.

Psychohazard:I don't understand all the hate for Nick Cage--imagine how bad ConAir would have been without him.

I don't know that people do hate him. He certainly has roles that he is a good fit for, but action hero isn't one of them. I liked him a lot in Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation, Raising Arizona, and he was just insane enough for Wild at Heart.

He seems to be aware of roles that he is miscast for and tries to stretch the acting too much to make it plausible, but of course that just makes it worse.

Browneye: I heard about this years ago and I still can't believe anyone was serious about Nicholas Cage being Superman. It sounds like something written in The Onion.

So did I. It seems weird now, but you have to remember,when that version of Superman was in the works, Nic Cage was fresh off an Academy Award win and had just starred in The Rock.

For a time in 96-97, he was one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood.

Being in demand doesn't negate bad casting. Nicholas Cage looks nothing like Superman - body type, face, hair - everything is so wrong. And on top of everything else, he's not handsome. Only Tim Burton with his twisted, weird-for-the-sake-of-being- wierd, aesthetic would have thought this could work.

Try to find stuff about Aronofsky's attempt at Batman. I'm not a big Nolan fanboy, but WOW did we dodge a bullet with that one. In his version, Bruce Wayne wasn't even heir to the Wayne empire, and that Batmobile was a black Lincoln Continental with the windows blacked out. Oh yeah, and his first attempt at fighting crime involved him wearing a hockey mask.

Some of you guys are JUST finding this out? Seriously, go track down Kevin Smith's (eh...rant is the wrong word) dealings with the studio on that before Burton came on and somehow made it more ridiculous than what Jon Peters wanted. It got even dumber after that. You get a new appreciation of Superman Returns. At least some aspects of that read like Superman.

/Smith's script was running around for a while. Parts of it really weren't bad. And it had Deadshot.

browneye:Browneye: I heard about this years ago and I still can't believe anyone was serious about Nicholas Cage being Superman. It sounds like something written in The Onion.

So did I. It seems weird now, but you have to remember,when that version of Superman was in the works, Nic Cage was fresh off an Academy Award win and had just starred in The Rock.

For a time in 96-97, he was one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood.

Being in demand doesn't negate bad casting. Nicholas Cage looks nothing like Superman - body type, face, hair - everything is so wrong. And on top of everything else, he's not handsome. Only Tim Burton with his twisted, weird-for-the-sake-of-being- wierd, aesthetic would have thought this could work.

Say what you want about whether he looks the part and whatnot, but there is no doubt the man just loves Supes. The guy is a massive fanboy - sometimes that's a a quality missing in superhero casting.

Solon Isonomia: Say what you want about whether he looks the part and whatnot, but there is no doubt the man just loves Supes. The guy is a massive fanboy - sometimes that's a a quality missing in superhero casting.

He's also a massive Elvis fanboy, and even went so far as to marry Presley's Scientologist daughter, but that doesn't mean he'd make a good Elvis.

Solon Isonomia:Say what you want about whether he looks the part and whatnot, but there is no doubt the man just loves Supes. The guy is a massive fanboy - sometimes that's a a quality missing in superhero casting.